Temptation
by LadyRavenwing
Summary: Why did Obi Wan not kill Anakin on Mustafar. What was going through his mind in that fateful moment? Was there maybe temptation of a very different sort tugging at the edges of the jedi master s mind? (Obi Wan one shot, Revenge of the Sith)


**Author´s note: So far, my Star Wars fanfics are based on nothing but movieverse. I have not read the novelisation of Revenge of the Sith and am aware that Obi Wan´s thought in this scene might differ vastly from my interpretation.**

 **Temptation**

The roaring of the flowing lava, close enough to make his skin feel hot, close enough to have straying sparks singe his sleeves, was not enough to drown out the turmoil within him. This place, he had felt even when they had arrived, was Dark. Heavy with the Dark Side of the Force, as if there was something in its very soil and atmosphere fuelling it. Feeding on it like a sinister beast of prey. Obi Wan had attributed that feeling to circumstance, to everything that had happened and was happening, but during the breathless fight it only seemed to have sharpened his senses.

There was murder in the other man´s eyes, the curly locks plastered against his former padawan´s forehead, eyes fierce and cold as he willed his mechanic float to align with the stream. Obi Wan raised his voice above the fires. "It´s over, Anakin. I have the high ground." He could feel his breath almost catching when he shouted, heart pounding wildly. Anakin, and he still thought of him by that name, had become an excellent fighter, swift, angry twirls a clear match for his former master´s skills, but as he stood there, Obi Wan reached out into the Force, letting it calm him. It was as if trying to breathe clean air in a smoldering house. The darkness of this planet suffocating the light, threatening to surround him and yet he focused. He knew that this was what set him apart, that where Anakin was impulsive he was calm and centred. That where the other man´s furious power guided his actions, his own wits were still about him, guiding his own blade along the will of the Force.

Anakin´s gaze was pure hatred and even when he talked, Obi Wan knew that the younger one would not let up. He would fight to the very end. He would fight until one of them made a grave, fatal mistake. "You underestimate my power."

He felt himself shake his head ever so slightly."Don´t try it." What sounded like a simple threat was much more than that. There had been a situation like this before… back then, another had had the high ground, towering above him. And he had turned it to his advantage. Anakin could, too, but his former master had played the scene in his head so many times, hundreds of times, thousands of times, that he could foresee every move, anticipate every possible flick of a saber. He had once killed a Sith that way, by catapulting himself out of that shaft, slicing the yellow eyed demon in two… if Anakin attacked him from that position,he would be doomed.

 _ **Good… he is dangerous, Obi Wan. He is too dangerous to be kept alive.**_

The voice, bodiless, woven into the very fabric of the fire tinted soil was there, strong, suggestive, dark velvety silk threatening to engulf his mind. _No. It is not the jedi way. It is not…_

Anakin jumped. High into the air, flipping, spinning as he did, a vicious, agile move that would have thrown off most others. Obi Wan reacted swiftly, forcing that voice out of his head, countering it with the jedi code. _Not the jedi way…not the jedi way…_ and then the voice inside him laughed. Laughed and drowned out the fire when his saber landed a vicious, devastating blow, making his former padawan fall to the ground, a ruined man, a mere torso. _**And now look what you have done…**_ the voice in his head was there again, evil, pleased. So pleased. _ **You have learned well, Obi Wan.**_

Numb, realising, he retreated, panting, trying once more to will that voice away, that voice of pure evil poisoning his mind. _Leave. I command you, leave. You are not welcome here._ But the intruder that was taking up residence in his mind as he couldn´t help but stare at the ruin of a man, using one remaining arm to try and drag himself up the rubble field towards him, that very intruder, was pleased. _**What a vicious move, Obi Wan. Death would have been so much more merciful.**_

He shut down his saber. _**Death…**_ _Not the jedi way._ And yes, he had seen this move before. A cruel move to disable an opponent, to cause as much suffering as possible. And he had chosen it. In the split second he had had to decide how to counter Anakin´s attack, he had not chosen to kill, he had not chosen to attemt to disarm, he had not chosen to merely aim for the hands… he had crippled. Crippled horribly. And the voice in his head was pleased. _ **You read of this. Always the wise master, Obi Wan. You read this in the old, forbidden writings of the Sith. They were particularly fond of this particular move, were they not?**_ And in this moment he was not sure what scared him more. The voice or the fear that it was not coming from elsewhere…but from inside himself. Numbly he did a step back. Felt his helplessness rise inside him like a river, mixing with his own dread. Screamed his furstration, his fear, not just over what had happened and was happening, but also urging a defiant, desperate battlecry against the darkness within himself that had reared its ugly head and was crouching to make the final leap for his very soul. **You used a Sith move, Obi Wan. There is no need to deny it.**

"You were the Chosen One. It was said that you would destroy the Sith, not join them." He watched in horror how the broken husk of a man was trying once more to crawl towards him. Advanced like some thing that should be dead, that he should have killed. But that had been his friend. The voice inside him cackled again…. And the jedi master stubbornly fought what he already knew. He was hearing the call of the dark side. And it had never been stronger. Never been more tempting. His scream was a desperate attempt to drown it out. "Bring balance to the Force, not leave it in darkness."

 _ **Good… let it all out…**_ the darkness within him threatened to overpower him. In all his years he had never felt its pull so massively, so suggestively. He withdrew once more. _You cannot kill him…_ _ **what a noble jedi…so twisted inside… no merciful death. And you tell yourself there is no darkness within you? What do you think led to this?**_ When he picked up Anakin´s saber, he felt dizzy.

"I hate you."

Another battering onslaught to his senses and his very core. The words he had never known he dreaded. That made him choke inside and realise how far beyond saving they had gone. He flung his own dispair back at them.

"You were my brother Anakin." He could almost feel his own voice break. His limbs shaking. His mind in an uproar. "I loved you." The voice remained quiet for long enough for him to believe it had retreted back into the void. Then, almost a whisper, it suggested again. _ **Look, master Kenobi.**_ It was a mockery of his name. _**Take a close look at what you have done. At how strong the Dark Side is in you.**_

Below, the lava had risen, slightly, but enough to lap at his former padawan´s legs, or what was left of them. The agony in the other man´s voice was bereft of humanity and made him avert his gaze in horror. And the voice inside his head kept laughting a low, sinister chuckle. _ **You are still afraid to look, Obi Wan. You could be so much stronger if you admitted this side of you. You could be so much stronger than this so called Chosen One ever was. So much stronger…so incredibly powerful…**_

The flames leapt again, the man in front of him caught fire while he watched, torn between staring and looking away, tempted by his own emotions. His love, his hatred, his dispair. The jedi inside him calmli insisting this was the only way, the human in him grieving, hurting the loss of a friend. Of a brother. And the third…the sith within him… _ **.revelling in the sight.**_

 _ **Almost,**_ the voice suggested, _**a whisper only, almost there. You know you cannot face me, master jedi. You join me or die.**_

A power. A spectre only as he had believed but in this moment he realised…the voice was not himself. It was not part of his soul. It was the Sith Lord,…it was the dark menace that had corrupted them all. That had corrupted Anakin. And as much relief as it gave him to realise it was not part of his own darkness, he felt broken. Shattered. Tired. Exhausted by everything. So close…so close to his own darkness. He retreated further, finally turning his gaze from what remained of his padawan. Walked away, one step after the next. Fighting the darkness. Fighting it and it took all the strength he could muster.

 _ **Why don´t you stay…**_ the voice as furhter now, with less impact. _ **I could use a new apprentice by the looks of it. Thanks to you, Obi Wan. I am, in fact, quite curious what we could accomplish together.**_

His spirit and mind and body were almost too tired to cast off that last shroud of he turned and walked away, he could sense the Sith Lord approaching. The one that, as he blieved, would come too late to alter what he had done to his own ward, the one who had, for a long, long moment, stretched his evil reach towards the jedi master himself. When Obi Wan finally succeeded in freeing himself from the other mind´s poisoning impact, he dreaded to contemplate how close to his own fall he had truly come.

 _ **Oh, such a pity…**_ the voice was a mere whisper now, weak, powerless, but a merciless taunt. _ **You could be strong, Obi Wan…a powerful Sith indeed, if you so chose…**_

His knees almost buckled as he hastened his pace back to the spaceship.


End file.
